NCFishwrap reacts to the LCWR’s news

In another entry I posted about the doctrinal investigation and oversight by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the USCCB of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (a subsidiary of the Magisterium of Nuns).

The Vatican investigation into U.S. women religious, which began in 2009, is finally bearing its first toxic fruit. [Let the hysteria begin!]

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Wednesday it has named Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain to lead a five-year reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The reforms include a revision of the LCWR’s statutes, a review of its programs (including, in all likelihood, Vatican approval of topics and speakers at their annual general assembly) and reviews of their liturgical norms and relationship with NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby.

Sartain has made headlines in recent months for his recommendation that parishes in his diocese collect signatures for petitions supporting Washington state’s referendum against same-sex marriage. [Which some of the priests of the Archd. Seattle have resisted.]

This “doctrinal assessment” has been initiated by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Their greatest concern about LCWR’s programming? You guessed it: They’re not explicitly anti-gay and anti-women’s ordination. [She equates being in harmony with both natural law and the Church’s divinely inspired teaching as being “anti-gay”, even though the CDF clearly teaches about the charity that must be shown to homosexuals. And this is a very different issue than that of the impossibility of the ordination of women. Still, this comment shows why I was looking forward to NCF’s comments!] The USCCB’s press release states:

“CDF said that the documentation ‘reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States. Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.'”

LCWR representatives have not yet commented publicly on what is undoubtedly an unprecedented moment of crisis for the conference. [Unquestionably an unequivocal assault on fans of alliteration.]

This raises a question, of course.

Is there such a strong connection of the LCWR and… how to say… certain lifestyle choices?

[Sr. Joan] Chittister said she was deeply distraught at news of Sartain’s appointment and the order for LCWR to revise itself. [What a surprise!]

“When you set out to reform a people, a group, who have done nothing wrong, [You mean, other than purposely embrace heresies and all sorts of strange things, criticize and defy the Holy See and bishops, abandon their habits and the charisms of their communities… ] you have to have an intention, a motivation that is not only not morally based, but actually immoral,” she said. [Keeping in mind that this new project comes from the CDF and that this is approved by the Holy Father, I rest my case.]

“Because you are attempting to control people [Note the word “attempt”. I look forward to many more statements of defiance from women religious, speeches at conferences, articles in NCR.] for one thing and one thing only — and that is for thinking, for being willing to discuss the issues of the age … If we stop thinking, if we stop demanding the divine right to think, [She pretty much side-steps the problems, no? This “think” thing is misdirection.] and to see that as a Catholic gift, then we are betraying the church no matter what [NB] the powers of the church see as an inconvenient truth in their own times.” [Sr. Joan must be for the Magisterium of Nuns what Al Gore is to the climate change crowd.]

In attempting to take such control of people’s thinking, [She must think most of her readers are pretty stupid, since she keeps repeating the point.] she said, “You make a mockery of the search for God, of the whole notion of keeping eyes on the signs of the times and of providing the people with the best possible spiritual guidance and presence you can give. [More Enneagrams, please!]

“When I was a child in this town, I was taught that it was a sin to go into a Protestant church.

In my lifetime, the church, to its eternal credit, admitted that it was wrong. [!?! About entering Protestant churches? – Would that some of them would… but I digress. ] The scandal and the sin is that it took 400 years to do that.”

Chittister said women religious have been trying since Vatican II “to help the church avoid that kind of darkness and control … they have been a gift to the church in their leadership [1 Cor 11:5] and their love and their continuing fidelity.

“When you set out to reform that kind of witness, remember when it’s over who doomed the church to another 400 years of darkness. It won’t the people of the church who did it.” [Thus, the Pope and CDF and USCCB are not “people of the church”. Okay! I can live with that.]

Sr. Joan also offer this:

“Within the canonical framework, there is only one way I can see to deal with this,” said Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, who has served as president of the group as well as in various leadership positions. (Chittister also writes a column for NCR.) “They would have to disband canonically and regroup as an unofficial interest group.

82 Responses to NCFishwrap reacts to the LCWR’s news

Just the title for this article made me smile. Bishop against gay marriage. Isn’t that every single ordinary in the United States? Just the title — as if he’s the only one, or as if this had anything to do with why they chose him — makes me chuckle.

Please remember to keep Archbishop Sartain in your prayers. My ordaining bishop, he’s a wonderful man, and undoubtedly his life just got a whole lot more complicated than it was.

Is there such a strong connection of the LCWR and… how to say… certain lifestyle choices?

Reverend and Dear Blogmaster, is that really fair?

I’ve been edited (perhaps justly) for equating certain “lifestyle choices” with certain liturgical proclivities. So, we know that’s not fair game. So, seriously, in the interest of fairness, the above-quoted question of your is really not all that much different.

I wonder if Archbishop Sartain’s writ could be expanded to the NcFishwrap? After all, it fits the penultimate paragraph, p.3 of the Doctrinal Assessment, “…Moreover, occasional public statements by the [NcFishwrap] that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.…”

I think all this really means is LCWR will now officially leave the Church they in fact left years ago and their orders will continue to die a slow, agonizing death. For years they have idolized the secular world but that world continues to ignore their “me too!” dance to its every whim. What a sad and pathetic end for those consecrated to Christ. What will it take for them to see the light?

Archbishop Sartain’s sister is a Dominican Sister of St Cecilia (Nashville Dominican) so you can be sure that all 270 (yes, you read that correctly, 270) of those sisters will be praying for him. I have often said that when those Nashville Dominicans start praying for something, you might as well give it up.

If I had to choose, I think I like this statement of Sr. Joan Chittister best of all: “for being willing to discuss the issues of the age”. Just as babies aren’t mere clumps of tissue, and as their heinous deaths do in fact matter very much in the eyes of God, one cannot say that this organization has been demonstrably at all willing to discuss this “issue of the age” as one never sees them involved in prolife work and advocacy. It’s been all about being silent in order to give death its due and precisely being reticent and unwilling to be a voice for the poorest and those with the least amount of power.

Please enlighten the ignorant reader: Who comprises the LCWR? Is it individual nuns, or entire orders?

In other words, do individual nuns have a choice whether they belong to this, or could some women religious have been roped into it without any chance to back out, and they’re quietly hiding in the background trying to ignore what’s going on…and could be in some way censured because of this?

This would seem to be the point at which some women religious or whole orders may become honest women and leave the Church.

It is interesting that their discussions of “issues of the age” never conclude with the affirmation that the Catholic teaching is correct on those issues. They don’t come down on the side of the Church ever.

Philangelus,
The LCWR is composed of elected representatives, usually the leaders, of about 75% of the women’s orders in the United States. I believe that contemplatives have their own organization and there’s also another organization set up as more conservative group, the CMSWR.

The story of the teaching congregations in this country is a long and difficult one, with many complicated and painful twists and turns. It’s sad that it had to turn out this way. The religious congregation picture in Europe didn’t turn out much better. I hope that we have learned some lessons here as we go into Africa and Asia, but I’m not particularly optimistic about that.

Interesting that “Chittister” (as the article calls her) always speaks about the church (small “c”) and never the Church (large “C”). I wonder whether she is thinking about the same reality that we mean when we say “the Church” (i.e. the Holy Roman Catholic Church, the Mystical Body and Bride of Christ).

Maybe we should refer to her reality as “an ecclesial community” and not as the Church in the proper sense?

It never ceases to amaze me how much hatred against the Church (capital “C”) liberal priests and nuns have, and how they constantly seek to impose the “magisterium” of their ecclesial community against the authentic Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Love for the Church, on the other hand, is, in my opinion, a very strong sign that one is being faithful to one’s vocation. Hatred towards the Church is always a red flag. Yes, the Church does have a human component to it, and that human component is made up of sinners as well as of saints. However, it is not the human elements that define the Church in her essence. Far too many, including many “Catholics”, are in confusion on this point. The Church is essentially holy. Holiness is one of the four marks of Christ’s Mystical Body.

Looks like a big job; perhaps His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay, SSPX, would be available to assist? Holy Mother Church’s imminent, newest Bishop ( you know, someone who’s actually allowed to authoritively teach the Catholic faith? A shepherd to whom, at some point, these sisters swore fidelity and obedience?)

Thanks for the link. I think the picture is most telling. They choose to represent the LCWR via a traditional nun receiving communion on the tongue, when such a nun would likely not be part of the LCWR and if she were would cheer on the news. Why? Because if they showed a typical member of the LCWR you wouldn’t be able to tell that she was a nun, either by her dress or by her doctrine.

I am noticing the indignity these feminist nuns feel about having to be under the “control” of a meanie male (!) bishop. Well, the Church did let them self-govern largely, and that experiment has appeared to fail.

@frjim4321 Heretics?
As a lad we had a joke that whent thusly: What are the three things even The Holy Ghost doesn’t know the answer to?
1: What’s on the mind of a Jesuit
2: How a Franciscan keeps his vow of poverty
And lastly
3: How many independent congregations of nuns there are.

The timing of the SSPX news, and the LCWR news is impeccable. And, here we find in Cardinal Levada’s accompanying letter something that jumped out at me…

<<<The overarching aim of the doctrinal Assessment is, therefore, to assist the LCWR in
the United States in implementing an ecclesiology of communion, confident that “the
joyous rediscovery of faith can also contribute to consolidate the unity and communion among the different bodies that make up the wider family of the Church.” 2
>>>

Footnote 2 attributes that quote, as follow: CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Note with pastoral recommendations for the Year of Faith

When you really think about it, the SSPX rejects certain teachings as written in respective documents and they are held on the “outside”, all the while other groups reject other teachings and they are allowed to remain “inside”. It really is visible, to me, that the SSPX has been treated much more harshly than other groups.

In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if we need to thank Bishop Fellay for getting some action here. If I were in his shoes, I would point out the duplicity of doing absolutely nothing about the public scandal LCWR has caused in it’s disharmony with Church teaching. Furthermore, I was glad to see some acknowledgement that there is concern about the errors spreading to other communities in the world. That was a given. Thank God they finally acted on that aspect.

All of that business about “the divine right to think” puts me in the mind of the outcry over the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine taking a close look at Sr. Elizabeth Johnson’s writings. It’s as though the bishops didn’t have a “divine right” to think about or question anything a woman religious might be doing. There’s not a whole lot of transparency there (something NCReporter scribes are always complaining about with Vatican affairs). I don’t see a whole lot of thinking in her inflammatory diatribe.

What some catholics want is not sisters or nuns, but slaves who wear romantic costumes to make them feel good and don’t complain no matter what, and this is a good part of what got us into this mess in the first place.

I’m not in agreement with where the women’s religious congregations have gone in the last 40 years or so, far from it, but I don’t think depriving them of their “last names” is preventative or even cure. I think it’s about as outlandish as wanting slaves.

Pray for our archbishop (Sartain)! With his support of Referendum 74 here in Washington and this new appointment, I’m afraid that he is in the queue for some real personal suffering.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to meet Archbishop Sartain will know that he is pastoral in the genuine sense. He cares for the salvation of his flock enough to stand for the truth and has the compassion to do it with real care.

“Sartain has made headlines in recent months for his recommendation that parishes in his diocese collect signatures for petitions supporting Washington state’s referendum against same-sex marriage.

And add your comment [bold in original]:

[Which some of the priests of the Archd. Seattle have resisted.]

According to a fellow parishioner at my parish in the University District here, Seattle’s St. James Cathedral parish (whose Pastor is Fr. Michael Ryan, of Why Can’t We Just Say “Wait?” fame) has decided not to permit anyone to sign the petition on Cathedral property. Of course, that was probably predictable, considering the players involved.

The situation in the State of Washington now involves several parishes which are disobeying Church doctrine. That a bishop who is strong in the area of morals has been given this position is fantastic.

God never abandons His Church.

As to Sr. Joan, why is she even given press? She states the same, liberal tripe over and over…As to why these women stay in the Church, as some have wondered, they have power and will not give it up.

It seems like the time is rapidly approaching and is now here that the Church Militant is ready to dig in knee deep in the morass the Church finds herself. The fight is going to be intense, as will be the backlash. Pray for Abp. Sartain and those who hold the Catholic faith near and dear. And a prayer for dissidents that their hearts may be softened and that they come to their senses. We can only serve one master. Let that master be God. +JMJ+

I have had the honor of serving as Archbishop Sartain’s MC at several masses in the past, and spent time talking with him on those occasions. I cannot imagine a more pleasant, reverent, self-effacing and dedicated pastor of souls to serve in this role. My regret is that Seattle may eventually lose him to a larger see.

Thank you for posting all those ravings from the left-wing Catholic press…I lack the intestinal fortitude (or control over my blood pressure) to read them in their unmoderated form.

That said, I think some of the orders that are part of the LCWR will actually be quite relieved by this. I know that one of our local diocesan orders has been trying to figure out where it went wrong, resulting in a situation where they have an average age of late 60 to possibly even early 70- something, and have had no vocations for decades.

They drank the kool aid in the 1970s, got rid of their community life, habit, charism (teaching) and spiritual foundation. They know that this is the problem and I know some of them want to reel it back, but the problem is that the powerful influence of the LCWR really prevents them from addressing these matters. Cut off the head of the monster!

It’s almost like reading all the pronouncements that came out of the Soviet system back in the day…where they ascribe all things to the insight of Lenin and the kindness of father Stalin. I swear, there’s a 6-column list of hackneyed phrases that have where they choose one from column a, 2 from column b, throw in a peace and justice and obligatory ‘clerical scandal’ mention, use the ‘patricarchal’ modifier…and sit there with their arms crossed and a smug look on their faces.

Other thing I notice, almost reflexively…their focus, their tone, their stress is NEVER about conforming to the mind of the Church, but how the CHURCH is NOT conforming to the mind of the minority of its members (of which, it appears, they’ve appointed themselves as official spokesmen…). If they were actually honest with themselves, they’d leave. There’s plenty of other bodies that would, I’m sure, love to have them. But, I guess, it does make for good theater, and in some sort of sad way, you do feel sorry for them, since their time has long passed but they are desperately grasping at anything to make them seem relevant.

By the way, in some areas of the Church, the nunnies like Sr. Joan have been allowed to carry on the political discussion without any criticisms. Here is a great link to another so-called Catholic, Barbara Boxer, who is going on about the war on women in the GOP, much like Sr. Joan’s victim-hood attitude of nuns toward the supposed horrible male hierarchy. Get over it….ladies.

I’ve just spent my lunch time reading the ‘Doctrinal Assessment’ prepared by the CDF. It would appear from her ‘nutty’ (such a lovely expression: thank you for coining it FrZ) that Sr Joan Chittister hasn’t. I offer the following selective quotations which would appear to answer both her general point and her specific criticisms. I have attempted to post it over on the Fishwrap.

‘On a doctrinal level, this crisis is characterized by a diminuition of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration which leads, in turn, to a loss of a “constant and lively sense of the Church” among some religious.’

‘…letters the CDF received from “Leadership Teams” of various Congregations, among them LCWR Officers, protesting the Holy See’s actions regarding the question of women’s ordination and a correct pastoral approach to homosexual persons…The terms of the letters suggest that these sisters collectively take a position not in agreement with the Church’s teaching on human sexuality.’

‘…a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith…that risk distorting faith in Jesus and his loving Father who sent his Son for the salvation of the world.’

‘…while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death…’

‘Some speakers claqim that dissent from the doctrine of the Church is justified as an exercise of the prophetic office. But this is based upon a mistaken understanding of the dynamic of prophecy in the Church: it justifies dissent by positiing the possibility of divergence between thge Church’s magisterium and a “legitimate” theological intuition of some of the faithful.’

‘The analysis of the General Assemblies, Presidential Addresses, and Occassional Papers reveals…a a two-fold problem. The first consists in positive error…The second…the silence and inaction of the LCWR in the face of such error.’

I know you’re a busy woman, Sr Joan, what with all those books and interviews and probably don’t have time to read a seven and a half page document but enquiring minds want to know how what you’ve said stands up to the critique offered by these few short sentences.

“…their focus, their tone, their stress is NEVER about conforming to the mind of the Church, but how the CHURCH is NOT conforming to the mind of the minority of its members…”

This is certainly ironic, don’t you think Mr. Boyle, that this is happening at the time when the readings from the OF of Holy Mass from the Acts of the Apostles focus on obedience to Christ and His teachings?

Take the following, for instance.

“And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:32)

Yet, wait and see, the LCWR and their allies will turn this into what we read a few verses before and twist its true meaning.

“We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

Many of the LCWR and their allies – unfortunately – will never conform their minds to the Church. So much for St. John’s words in his first letter.

“Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6)

Is there a Survivors Network for those of us who were morally abused by Sr. Joan and her ilk? Is there any recourse for the many students who were scared and damaged in our formation of conscience due to the years of “teaching” by these women? I would not hesitate to use the “L” word in their regard as I was indoctrinated and recruited to join them for years and it was my realization of their proclivities that finally caused me to examine their motive sand false teaching. I am so grateful divine intervention because there but for the Grace of God go I!

Two weeks ago Pope Benedict XVI rebuked dissident priests in Austria. Yesterday the hammer came down on dissident nuns in America. Dare we hope more corrective action is coming? Would it be too much to ask the USCCB to rebuke the Fishwrap or even instruct them to remove the word “Catholic” from its title? Silence gives consent. For too long this dissident publication has been attacking the Church and leading people astray.

Has anyone looked into how much money/property these dying orders of religious have/control?
What happens to their assets when they die out? Maybe they stay in the Church for financial reasons. Of course no one knows their hearts and I am sure that some of the sisters in these orders have disagreed with the modernizations and have been living a white martyrdom all these years. But about their assets, what regulates what they do with them and the money if they sell those buildings, etc just wondering….

Music to my ears. The squeals of the dissenters, modernists and heretics, that is. For 50 years we’ve suffered under their persecution. They’ve flooded the church with their “toxic” (word used deliberately) heresies and utterly poisoned the catechesis of 3 generations of Catholics. The decline in vocations, the loss of millions to the faith is due entirely to their insipid, agnostic humanism, utterly devoid of authentic Catholic spirituality.

Thankfully, time is not on their side and their toxic “spirit (small “s”) of Vatican II” is dieing with them. It can’t happen soon enough.

frjim4321 Sorry, I should have been more clear. I regard a majority of those belonging to or admiring the LCWR as heretics. For an expansion of that please read the article I published this morning “A Disturbance in the Church” available here: http://wp.me/p27DAO-ix

This is a quote from a book on the Jesuits during a period in the 1970s when they were being investigated:

“When you have people [the Jesuits] who do not think they have made errors either in content or procedure, and they are suspected, resisted or reproved by the very man [the Pope] they are attempting to serve…you have…a very serious religious problem.”

Regarding Bp Sartain and his sister, I think Pope Benedict is reproducing solutions from history again. St Benedict and his sister St Scholastica both had monastic houses and are said to have conferred and compared with each other. A very promising start!

Oh, the coming shrieks of the beast, that has awoken! Hell hath no fury like a feminist scorned, so we are all in for quite a ride. The poor Bishop.
I am surprised by the lack of subtlety and finesse on the part of the writer of this first response. This is not a measured response, with the use of strategy such as words that reassure of obedience, fidelity, etc. I guess those concepts have so long been abandoned there is not even a thought to resurrect them now. I won’t belay the point, but, I don’t see this as a very intelligent response, or one full of cautious guile. But, the unfortunate part, besides the damage they do to the faith, the scandalizing that has been done to the faithful, the errant teaching, is that the fallout will be messy and public. It will fall right in with the unfair public perception of the “male-dominated” church, blah blah blah.
Too bad, this is GREAT for the rest of us!

Finally someone is taking names and kicking butt. Let them join what’s left of the Episcopal church. Let them risk their immortal souls but don’t allow them to lead astray any more generations of Catholics. There’s still more to be done but this is a great start.

I might add that petition signing was optional in Seattle Archdiocese parishes. One of the three where there was no petition signing was the Cathedral, which with the other two parishes I know of border a gay neighborhood and are not much for sticking out their necks for traditional social causes. One of these parishes does fine work with the poor, though.

It is traditional for both men and women to leave their family names behind when entering a monastery, as a sign that one has taken on a new name and role, and that therefore certain family obligations and ties are left behind in the world. For example, order priests and brothers were usually known by names like Fr. Mary Aloysius, Don Fredogildo, and Br. Donatus, whereas diocesan priests just tacked on their title to all their birth/baptismal names: Fr. Michael Robert Francis X. Donnelly.

When it comes to orders of nuns and sisters, there are similar customs, according to the order’s history, rule, and purpose. Generally, most contemplative orders wanted nuns to change their names to religious names and leave their family names behind; most active orders of sisters had various schools of thought on the matter. During the Sixties and Seventies, many orders that previously had included name changes made their members go back to birth names, which was often pretty draconic.

It should be added that, traditionally, name changes (a la Abraham and Sarah) were seen by most religious of both sexes as a feature, not a bug. Much wit was used upon such changes, as with the young Irish prince whose birthname meant “Fox” and who was renamed (with a hope that took a while to materialize) “Columba”, Dove. (And who at first failed to renounce his family ties sufficiently, to the point that he led his clan in a bloody war set off by copyright differences. He ended up having to renounce his homeland’s soil and become a missionary, to save his soul and live up to his name.)

Young women contemplating vocations were known to particularly enjoy wondering what kind of religious name they might be given (whereas Catholic girls my age were stuck with wondering why our parents didn’t name us something cooler, like Cassandra, and plotting legal name changes as soon as we hit 18). St. Therese’s book The Story of a Soul talks about the fun of religious names, while Poulenc’s opera “The Dialogues of the Carmelites” has some wonderful scenes dealing with religious names.

A sudden policy change, reneging on naming practices at least 1700 years old — how was that _not_ going to rip a hole in the fabric of religious life for hundreds of thousands of men and women? And how on earth is it controversial to express worry about that hole’s effects?

Mark R W hat does their deafening silence for traditional social causes lead their parishioners to believe? Filling the bellies of the poor is right and just but allowing souls to be starved of the truth is unjustifiable.

I think part of the impasse with respect to the LCWR and the CDF is due in part to differences of ecclesiologies, with the Women Religious operating from the ecclesiology of communion that is central to the both the letter and spirit of VCII whereas the CDF is operating from a Counter-Reformation institutional model (Credit to Dallen).

The gloating and vemon directed here against thousands of faithful women is a sad commentary on contemporary catholic fundamentalism.

This new pogrom of the USCCB and CDF can only result in much greater polarization in the Church.

I don’t know who is gloating and who is relieved that something is finally being done about those groups of women’s religious who have been an ongoing source of dissension against the magisterium of the Church approximately since the latter 1960s, when my wife was attending Webster College and the Sisters there had their habits taken away, not a few of them against their wishes and expectations. What I do know is the following:

• The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ.
• The Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ on earth.
• My understanding is that all Catholic religious take a vow of obedience to their superiors, and further, I understand that leads hierarchically to obedience to the Holy Father.
• Christ, our Lord, taught his disciples that “he that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth … For by the fruit the tree is known.”

And, finally, those who publicly and obstinately contradict the long-standing teaching of the ordinary and special magisteria of the Church directly damage the body of our Lord and lead souls astray. If, by their behavior in failing to keep their vows of obedience, they likewise require correction and refuse it and thereby provoke discipline, it is they, not their superior, who bear the greater responsibility for the resulting polarization.

I have these understandings as a relatively recent convert to the Church. I also have it from my formation both in RCIA and when I was younger, as a member of our nation’s Naval service, having served in both enlisted and commissioned capacities before retiring. How is it that those sisters, some of whom have been named further up on this comment thread by my Catholic sisters and brothers, now find themselves yet again making rebellious comments and assertions? Is the reason a lack of proper formation? Is it a lack of discipline by which they have come to believe that they are no longer bound by their vows, or else believe that there will be no consequences for rank disobedience? I do not know the reason why, because I do not know them. Nevertheless, I can recognize contrary and rebellious conduct and speech, and it is evident to many of us. At some point, if they find themselves unable to keep their vows, perhaps it is time they have the personal moral integrity to ask to be released from those vows.

Father Jim, I usually welcome commentators like you and PostCatholic who have the guts and the patience to come and contribute here, even though you’re not on the same wavelength as our Reverend host and many who comment here. Nonetheless, your comparison of the investigation of the USCCB and the CDF to a “pogrom” is just as overblown and paranoid as any “fundamentalist” comment I’ve read on this blog. Are you familiar with Godwin’s Law?

Not excusing the behavior of the LCWR which is frankly pretty flaky, but this is a long, long story and many long-standing Catholics aren’t even aware of the facts of the matter, since Catholics aren’t often very literal about how these things work, not having been informed, and preferring a romantic view of sisters and so on to real history.

Needless to say, the sisters are indeed, despite their fine university educations, running afoul of classical Christianity because of ignorance, misunderstandings and anger. It’s a long story, and I hope that Catholics someday figure out what really happened before we go and make the same mistake someplace else, like Asia and Africa where it could really bit us in the rump.

Fr. Jim,
To compare a mere investigation to the mass murder, mutilation, and torture of Jews by the Russian Empire is offensive, and you should be ashamed.
Aside from the fact that the promotion of frankly pagan and New Age practices, not to mention very outspoken defiance towards those to whom these sisters have sworn obedience, is something that warrants some sort of investigation.
If I spoke to or about my boss publicly in the way Sr. Chittester, et al., have done, I would be severely disciplined, and what’s more I would deserve it. But I would never compare even what I perceived as an unjust inquiry in terms of a holy scholar having his tongue cut out by a Cossack.

catholicmidwest,
I don’t recall having ever seen Y2Y before, and (especially given the silly screenname) suspect a drive-by troll/provocateur.
frjim on the other hand is a regular poster and a real person, and should know better.

I wasn’t aware that dissent and faithful are synonyms, Father. Apparently that announcement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Relativist flew way under the RADAR.

“And we charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they have received of us.” 2 Thessalonians 3:6

I think part of the impasse with respect to the LCWR and the CDF is due in part to differences of ecclesiologies, with the Women Religious operating from the ecclesiology of communion that is central to the both the letter and spirit of VCII whereas the CDF is operating from a Counter-Reformation institutional model (Credit to Dallen).

I’m no fan of Counter Reformation Ecclesiology, and I’m also comfortable with the Church understood as Communion. I don’t think, however, I would have much in common with the LCWR. Do you think that the LCWR is in Communion with the Dominican Sisters of Nashville or the Monks of Clear Creek?

In fact, I would wonder just who the LCWR is in Communion with–except other liberals and Protestants. If they’re in favor of women’s ordination, they’re certainly not in Communion with the Orthodox Churches. One of the fallacies these people live by is that doctrine is a Roman invention.

Thank you Heavenly Father for Archbishop Sartain, may You bless his work. I pray for all my sisters in holy religion that they return to orthodoxy, wear their holy habits and choose the one True God for their Master. Somewhere about 40+ years ago many thought they could serve two gods. We all know, you can’t serve two gods. Something happens when you put on the coif and veil….. you disappear. Wasn’t that the point?

SrMarieAugustinFCR:
Thank you! The self is gone, Religious life is a self less life, wherein the Religious subverts their will to God’s Will, where the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, the Liturgy of the Hours and communal life subsume the I into the we and through the Sacraments, the Magisterium of the Church, the good works of the communities charism and deliberaate, constant running prayer that is the conversation with God, the we becomes HE, our individual will is subsumed and we disappear to earthly view.
A bit poetic, I know, but that is the ideal! I wrote about it earlier today: http://wp.me/p27DAO-iL

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Grant unto thy Church, we beseech
Thee, O merciful God, that She, being
gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may
be in no wise troubled by attack from her
foes.
O God, who by sin art offended and by
penance pacified, mercifully regard the
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own might may be crushed by the power of
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in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end. R. Amen.

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Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

- St. John Paul II

A bit more food for thought…

“Only one sin is nowadays severely punished: the attentive observance of the traditions of our Fathers. For that reason the good ones are thrown out of their places and brought to the desert.”

For your consideration…

"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

More food for thought:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

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More food for thought…

"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."

- Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 176

Even More Food For Thought

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests."

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Additional Food For Thought

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

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